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Tag Archives: AI

So I joined a startup… or at least I’m going to shortly. In some respects it’s a bit of an odd move for me as I’m usually the one who opts for the “safe” option, but once you look at the decision in more detail it’s easy to see why it’s a no brainer for me.

The first worry for anyone moving to a startup is “is my job safe?”. But then define safe. We’ve just been through a recession that kicked off by bringing down Lehman’s, who were supposedly “too big to fail”. What I do know is that there’s money for the next year and even if it all goes tits up the experience gained in that year is going to be invaluable.

What about the hours? Well.. what about them? I spend most of my spare time playing with new technology anyway, why not invest that time into something useful, which could ultimately help the company, and therefore me.

And then there’s always the product. To be fair this is what has stopped me going to a startup in the past; I’ve never really believed in the product. My reaction has always been one of “OK, so that’s kind of cool… if it gets traction let me know and, if you’re still looking for people, we can talk”. With RainBird I think the product has the potential to be absolutely awesome. The fairly limited technical beta is already seriously cool.

So yes, it’s a risk, and yes it may flop, but hopefully I’m about to embark on something amazing, with some seriously talented people, doing a job that I can enthuse about at length. Watch, as they say, this space.

On Thursday I’m off to An Evening of Game AI. Now, what I know about writing modern games can be written on the back of a postage stamp. What I am is a consumer of games. And a fussy one at that. So why an evening of Game AI? Well first off its a subject that I think I’ll find interesting. Even if I never out the knowledge gained into practice I’m liable to walk away thinking “that was cool”. I’m a geek; shoot me. More importantly is the concept of Gameification [hideous word] and how I might apply game AI techniques into a business context. The ideas I have a very embryonic at the moment and it may be that they’re pie in the sky, but hopefully Thursday will prove useful and give me an idea of what directions I should be looking in.